Case Study: Collaborative working across supply chains
Decreased risk, leading to improved performance and increased profits
Engaging Clients, Consultants, Contractors and Suppliers. Leading to opportunities for true co-operation and collaboration. Resulting in:
- Improved collective supply chain performance
- Step-change in Customer satisfaction
- Lower risk. Better individual company performance and increased profits (growth >10%)
The issue
Through poor performance on many schemes UK construction has gained a reputation for projects running over budget, being completed late and often of poor quality. Individual clients and their supply chains have recognised these issues and the negative consequences they have on their inividual businesses. They have sought to address these as has the UK Government through its Industrial strategy for the sector Construction 2025.
Our Collaboartive working across supply chains programmes have addressed the culture and individual behaviours that drive and sustain:
- Late running and poor quality of construction works
- Failure of supply chains to understand customer needs
- Weak management of Specialist Sub-contractors by Main Contractors
- Poor quality of management and business leadership within Specialist Sub-contractors
- Poor management of risk by Specialist Sub-contractors
The programmes sought to achieve change by:
- Transforming the culture across the supply chain of a construction project, multiple projects or frameworks
- Focusing on: total client focus, whole team working, individual and collective responsibility and relentless predictability
- Setting a context where individual companies can improve their performance
“I wanted to say a huge thank you for all of your efforts in delivering a first class building and being prepared to do it differently! You will all be working with us again on projects in the very near future so lets ensure good practices are carried forwards and further developed.”
Achievements
The Collaborative working programmes acheived:
- Engagement of the whole supply chain
- Insight and understanding by the supply chain of the Client’s business and what’s really imprortant to them (Total client focus)
- Creation of cultures of co-operation and collaboration (Whole team working, indivudual and collective responsibility), leading to:
- Cross company co-operation in the office and on site – willingness to trust and help
- Innovation (across companies) in construction methods, techniques and processes, benfefitting in:
- Time savings, faster build times
- Financial savings, lower out-turn costs
- Reduced defects, reworking and snags
- Changed roles and responsibilities within the business
- Stramlining inspections and final hand-over
- Improved productivity
- Development of the cultures and behaviours of performance measurement (relentless predictability)
- Step change in preformance on projects – finished on time or early, on budget to quality and with very few after sales issues
- Final accounts completed and settled before project completion
- Happier people
Outcome
Businesses engaged on the the Collaborative working programmes have seen improvements in their performance:
- Surety of projects finishing on time, within budget and to a quality with few aftersales issues
- Decreased individual and collective risk
- No claims, invoices and accounts settled and paid early
- In some cases retentions not held
- Benefits for all companies large and small; services or manufacturers; clients, consultants, contractors and suppliers
- Step-changes in individual company performance
- Double digit percentage (>10%) growth in profits for some companies
- Repeat business across the supply chain
- Creation of a framework/template for culture change and continuous improvement
- Businesses have a stronger training ethos
- Positive Return on investment (ROI)
